The New Perfect Body: Miles From Twiggy

March 8, 1986|By Richard Phillips, Chicago Tribune

After two decades of shapeless androgyny and bony twigs, the American woman`s notion of ``a perfect body`` apparently is on the threshold of change.

That curvaceous, feminine posture most recently famous in the early `50s is returning -- and in all the right places, too, according to fashion experts. Accompanying it, however, is a fitness twist almost unprecedented in an otherwise cyclical phenomenon that caroms between shapeless and hourglass -- and erogenous points between -- about every 35 years.

``I don`t think there ever has been such a time as this,`` says Avis Moeller, a researcher of historical fashion trends and a professor of textiles and clothing at Mundelein College in Chicago.

``We`re not going back to Rubens, but we`re miles from Twiggy,`` says John Casablancas, founder of Elite Model Management and a longtime devotee of curvaceous women. ``Curves,`` Casablancas says, ``are a source of inspiration.``

Such news obviously will hearten millions of American men who fondly cried, ``Va va va voooom!`` and ``hubba hubba`` in the years of Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. But women, too -- especially those eager to reveal fruits of fitness -- have reason to welcome a return to womanly curves. For one thing, it means extra pounds are back in style. And that`s good news for women in their 30s and beyond who find dieting less and less effective -- and more and more boring -- as they grow older.

What`s important is how those pounds are added, and how they`re carried.

``Women are getting larger . . . but not necessarily fatter. The ideal is to have firm curves,`` says Linda Dietz, vice president of Hartmarx`s line of Country Suburban sportswear, observing that larger sizes are gaining in sales strength in every area except high fashion. ``Women aren`t afraid to have a little muscle anymore. Madison Avenue must believe it. They seem to be using healthier-looking models.``

Evidence of this shapely trend is sprouting in all the obvious places. Sports Illustrated`s swimsuit issue this month is one of them. Mademoiselle`s February cover story, ``Skinny Girls Ain`t Sexy,`` is another.

The intellectually oriented Harper`s magazine, meanwhile, observes that successful fashion models today are a hefty 10 pounds heavier than their counterparts in 1970 -- a leggy, curvaceous difference readily evident in a two-page color spread of bodysuit models in the current issue of Elle.

At the same time, fashion designers continue a steady withdrawal from severe angles in women`s lines, promoting instead dresses and suits that emphasize what`s underneath. Even in Paris, after years of neglect, an ``hourglass figure`` of the `50s is respectable again. It was expected at designer Emanuel Ungaro`s recent unveiling of women`s summer wear, which featured closely fitted suits. But then, at Chanel, molded curvaceousness strutted down the runway in waist- and hip-hugging dresses and suits. Karl Lagerfeld even showed padded hips for this spring.

Spurring this incipient trend are fashion models themselves. According to leaders in the industry, an increasing number of models arrive at reception offices better-endowed, more muscular and intent on staying that way.

``Bosoms are in for sure, especially in the last eight months,`` says Eileen Ford, head of New York`s trend-setting Ford Modeling Group, which screens more than 60,000 applicants a year and supplies cover girls for such magazines as Vogue and Harper`s Bazaar and cosmetics companies such as Chanel and Estee Lauder. ``Why? I`m totally bewildered. But they`re in.``

Jane Stewart of Chicago`s Elite Model Management sees much the same thing. She says clients are requesting models who are healthy, fit, taller and fuller. A small waist remains a must, Stewart says, but only because it emphasizes a more sensual feminine shape.

``We want to see a fuller figure today,`` says Stewart, whose clients are predominantly retailers and catalog houses. ``Breast sizes are getting bigger and models` figures are more voluptuous. It`s quite a bit different from the `60s, when small breasts were in vogue.``

If it`s true that models set styles -- as Ford contends -- then the style for women in the late 1980s began to take shape sometime in 1985, and in Paris as early as 1984.

Shades of Marilyn Monroe -- who cast an inspiring shadow in her prime. But even the glamorous Monroe might not cut the mustard today. ``Too sedentary,`` say chroniclers of the curve resurgence.

Fitness seems to be a key word. A woman who diets for shape but is not physically fit apparently possesses only half of what she needs for ``perfect womanhood`` in 1986.